Florida International University is an urban, doctoral granting institution located in Miami, Florida's largest population center. The mission of this state university is to serve the people of southeast Florida, the state, the nation and the international community by imparting knowledge through excellent teaching, creating new knowledge through research and fostering creativity and its expression. In 1996 FIU formally changed its mission statement Reaching for the Top to include "Health" as one of its primary strategic themes. With its current standing of 30,000 + students (68% minority), "Health" as a designated mission area, and its stated goal to be one of the nation's top public urban research universities. FIU provides a significant opportunity to develop more under represented minority scientists for biomedical research careers. The MBRS program at FIU has fostered faculty research by enabling selected faculty to conduct biomedical research with adequate funding for equipment and supplies as well as salary support for summer research. The program also encourages inter-disciplinary inter-change and facilitates resource sharing and provides faculty expenses to present their results at national meetings. Additionally, it provides the building of a research experience and data base so as to encourage the faculty to obtain additional, non-MBRS support for their research. This proposal will continue these efforts. After FIU review, twelve sub-projects and one pilot project are contained in the proposal. They represent on-going research efforts within the broad spectrum of biomedical research at Florida International University, specifically in the fields of biochemistry, neuro-physiology, immunology, molecular biology, biomedical engineering, and the biophysics of molecules.